The 2020 Olympics will be held in Tokyo, Japan, and the organisers of the event have already expressed their plans to make it the most innovative yet. Maki Kobayashi-Terada of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs believes that the summer games will be a good opportunity to showcase Japanese culture, technology, products, and public service. Kobayashi-Terada also said the Olympics will help modernise infrastructure, drive tourism, and improve accessibility for visitors.
Here are a few more things you can expect in the coming 2020 games:
North Korea will compete
CNN reports that North and South Korea are uniting as a team and are even bidding to co-host the 2023 Summer Games. This comes as no surprise since the two already united in the 2018 Winter Olympics, walking together at the opening ceremony as a joint team. It was truly a historic moment as they walked under a unified flag. “Sports could once more make a contribution to peace on the Korean Peninsula,” International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach said. “The IOC committed itself to continue to support the rapprochement between the two Koreas through sport,” he added.
New sports have been added
New sports including skateboarding and BMX park racing will be making an Olympic debut in 2020, which brings the number of sports to 33, five more than Rio 2016. Karate will also be making a debut, too, and Japan is expected to do well after retaining the men’s and women’s titles at the Karate World Championships this year.
Olympics 2020 will be technologically advanced
When Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stepped out dressed as video game character Super Mario at the closing ceremony of the 2016 Games, everyone knew it was a sign that this year’s Olympics would be tech-driven. The Verge reported that the NEC has announced that it will provide a large-scale facial recognition system called NeoFace for the 2020 Olympics. The system will identify over 300,000 people, including athletes, volunteers, media, and other staff. The security systems at the games will be top-of-the-line.
There will be two competition venues
The games will be spread into two themed areas: the “Heritage” zone and the “Tokyo Bay” zone. The “Heritage” zone pays tribute to the Tokyo 1964 Summer Games as it is where the original site was located. Meanwhile, the “Tokyo Bay” zone will be for water and extreme sport events. NBC News reveals that work is underway on the new National Olympic Stadium, which is being built on the site of the original 1964 Olympic Stadium. It is where the opening and closing ceremonies will be held, as well as the track events.
The 2020 Olympics will be the fourth Olympic games to be held in Japan. They already hosted the Summer Olympics in 1964 and the Winter Olympics in 1972 and 1998. The country has built up a reputation as a top international destination for sport, with tennis, martial arts, and figure skating events regularly held in Japan. Expat Bets, in their guide to Japan, note how the country has also become internationally renowned for winter sports in Hokkaido. The slopes of Hokkaido are host to a number of winter tournaments every year, drawing athletes from across the globe. Before the Olympics start, Japan will host the 2019 Rugby World Cup, another example of how far the country has come in its sporting heritage.
Japan has truly increased its presence on the world stage through their innovative ways of hosting prestigious sporting events. Their track record is why the 2020 Olympics are hotly anticipated.
Tags: Japan, Olympics, Olympics 2020, Tokyo, Tokyo Olympics 2020
